Shutterbug Staff

"Budding Photographer?"
While cleaning the yard last summer, I came across a baby praying mantis. Excited, I carefully picked him up and placed him in my wildflower area. I ran in the house to get my camera and tripod, then set up and fired off a couple of exposures.

Realizing that I wanted to get some fill light, I ran back into my house...

My wife and I visited Prague, in the Czech Republic, in November 2006. It is a simply beautiful city, full of color, with sculptures around and at the top of a very large number of buildings. It is a great city to walk around and just look at the beauty--and the people. We went for walks every day for six days and nights, sometimes riding the tram to get farther out, and I...

In New Orleans, during happier times, I was walking around the French Quarter and noticed a group of street performers. This particular man was deep in concentration; eyes closed, he was obviously "feelin' jazzy." I felt that the audience related to him and realized that he loved what he was doing. I knelt down on my knee to shoot up and slowed the shutter to...

Wandering around at sunrise in my new neighborhood, I came upon this wonderful pier with three men fishing. The sunrise, which silhouetted the fishermen, was behind the island of Sister Keys. The haze and colors are just as they were that early morning. I loved the symmetry of the men and the pier and their reflections in the water—they were not posed. Thinking how great it would be if they...